Skyrim: Worm Edition
by Peifmaster
Summary: A quirk of fate coughSheogorathcough sends the Queen of Escalation to the land of Skyrim. Talos preserve us…
1. Chapter 1

AN:

My Muse had a thought.

It horrified me.

It also left me cackling madly in front of my friends, who proceeded to give me many a look for such a social faux pas as letting my madness show in public like that.

Chapter 1:  
New Game

Her first thought after hitting the ground was that getting sucked into a black hole apparently didn't compact you into a microscopic smear. The second was that her everything hurt. Over the ringing in her ears, she could hear a strongly accented voice murmuring rapidly to itself.

"… definitely NOT a dremora… soul gem was correct, spell was right… how in oblivion did it go wrong?..."

Taylor managed to roll herself onto her back, which hurt no less than lying on her stomach did unfortunately, and succeeded in getting a glimpse of the person talking.

In front of her stood a tall, slender figure, male by the voice, with burning yellow eyes. His left hand held a large book with a purple cover, while in his right was a rather wide knife coated in red. Near his feet was the crumpled form of a young woman, her throat being the source of the blade's new coloring. Before Taylor could start to panic, the voice started speaking again.

"Well, it seems that my spell was a wash this time, but for the life of me I can't find what I did wrong. Luckily for me it provided me with exactly what I needed for a retry. Just hold still girl, this will all be over in a second…" he said, as he set the tome down and reached out to grab her arm.

Now, while Taylor wasn't at a Tattletale level of smart, she considered herself above average, and she was still keyed up from the fight with Bakuda that she had been ripped from. It was rather obvious to her that if she didn't do something RIGHT NOW, that she would end up just like the other girl. Her power still seemed to work through what she was starting to believe was at least a mild concussion, so she ordered every nearby insect to attack the man. Seeing as how she was in some sort of forest, that meant that there were quite a lot.

"Aaaargh! What sorcery is this?!" the man screamed, while swatting at the clouds of insects. All of a sudden, massive swaths of her bugs died as streams of flames leapt from his hands and devoured her swarm. She pulled back her insects, preserving their numbers against the now revealed pyrokinetic as he turned to her. "Just for that, bitch, I'm going to drain you slowly, and I'm going to savor every moment of it," he snarled as he _blurred_ , ending up behind Taylor. He seized her shoulders and hefted her from the ground, only for his hands to tightly grip her and tilt her head as she felt a sharp pain from her now exposed neck.

The man didn't get to finish whatever it was he was doing to her, as a loud shuffling sounded moments before a large brown shape leapt at her attacker with a chittering sound. The force of the blow ripped her from his grip, leaving two ragged tears in her neck and shoulder as whatever he was doing to her was forcefully stopped. The wet feeling let her know that she was bleeding quite a bit, and a sharp pain in her left thigh forced her to look down.

A brown shape like the previous one was firmly latched onto her leg, revealing itself to be an enormous spider the size of a dog. Her confusion of why she didn't have control over it was answered as she watched the man wave his glowing purple hand towards the nearby corpse of another massive spider, only for it to glow the same color as his hand and return to its feet.

Taylor didn't have time for further speculation on what exactly was going on. The man's knife was at her side, and Taylor didn't hesitate to drive it into the head of the spider on her leg. It was already feeling numb, yet painful at the same time, almost like frostbite felt like. The spider at her side started to fizzle and crumble into ashes, and she looked over to see the second reanimated spider doing the same from under a pile of her spiders. Looking to the man, she saw that he was wrapped in several layers of spider silk rope. As he snarled and thrashed, she noticed the long fangs that he had in place of canine teeth.

Taylor had honestly reached her limit by this point. Uber and Leet's shenanigans, the bomb bitch and the black hole, and now giant spiders and vampires. The concussion and blood loss were not helping matters. Taylor left the man wrapped up by the spiders as she stumbled away from the small clearing she was in. The edge of the tree line wasn't far off, and she made her way in that direction as best she could. The blood loss was getting to her, and she couldn't concentrate enough to make her bugs follow her, they just started buzzing around wildly.

She managed to break through the trees and onto a cobbled road, and she found herself facing three men similarly dressed in brown armor.

"Giant spiders. Vampire," was all she managed to get out before she dropped the knife that she had been gripping, and her tenuous hold on consciousness let go as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:  
Character Creation

It turns out that she hadn't imagined those fangs after all. When she woke a little over a week later, she was informed that a trio of soldiers had come upon her stumbling out of the wood line and brought her to the nearest town for treatment. A nice man named Hadvar had been kind enough to look after her. He had been on his way to visit his uncle on leave when his group had found her. The town not having a dedicated healer or alchemist, they had to make do with a mix of potions. A cure disease, cure poison, and health potion saw her condition improve marginally, and Hadvar took her to his uncle's house to watch over her.

It quickly became apparent that she wasn't in Brockton Bay anymore. She didn't think she was on Earth Bet either, for that matter. This world was positively medieval, in the truest sense of the word. Taylor initially thought that she would have trouble adapting to her new environment as she searched for a way to return to her own world, but she found it easier than she had expected.

The reason:

No Trio.

No Emma. No Sophia. No Madison.

It was like a breath of fresh air. She spent the first two weeks recovering, doing nothing more strenuous than walking or some light jogging, a habit she continued in the mornings. She was still getting used to the tunic and leggings she had to wear. It turns out that black holes are rather hard on clothing, and her costume was shredded almost completely, and that was before the vampire and spider had torn it up further. Speaking of, she would forever have reminders of her first moments in this new world. While her neck and shoulder were now home to two jagged scars, that was the least of it.

Somehow, the mix of vampirism and frostbite spider venom had some weird side effects on her, and was only mostly neutralized by the antidotes she was given. The spider venom had hindered the cure disease potion, and she had reached stage two vampirism before it was purged from her system. Similarly, the vampirism disease had hindered the cure poison potion, and the frostbite venom had made its way throughout her circulatory system before it was neutralized. It was only the repeated application of health potions that allowed her survival.

As a result, she now sported her own pair of fangs, though smaller than an average vampire's, her eyesight went from downright horrible to crystal clear, and she was no longer bothered by the cold at all; even outside at night and barefoot in the snow. She even thought her skin might be clearing up and getting a bit better looking.

All in all, Taylor didn't think she had come off too badly form the encounter. She had gone back to check if the vampire and spiders were still there, accompanied by Hadvar of course, but there was no sign of what had taken place three weeks ago.

Partially to repay the kindness she was shown, and partially because she really didn't have anything else to do, Taylor started to help around the town. She was taught archery and went hunting with Faendal after she resolved a conflict with the arrogant Sven, and learned how to skin and cook her own kill. Hadvar taught her how to fight, both unarmed and with a blade. She stuck to daggers for now, as she didn't yet have the muscle for a regular sword. Uncle Alvor taught her smithing and weapons care, and while she lacked the muscle to forge steel and would never be as good as his daughter/apprentice, she had become deft at working with iron and leather. She also helped out at the Valerius siblings' shop and with the gardening around town. The citizens of Riverwood soon grew accustomed to seeing Taylor about running errands or doing something or other.

It was about a month later that Taylor realized that she wasn't missing Earth Bet nearly at all. She had nothing strong enough to keep her there. School was hell, she had been new and not completely invested in the whole Cape business, and her dad and she had been growing distant lately. While she felt bad about not feeling as bad as she felt she should have been about him not being there, she had no trouble being independent and managing without parental assistance. Although Hadvar and his uncle did do their best to act like concerned uncles would.

Taylor was quickly settling into a new normal, and was feeling the happiest she'd been in a while. And while she was no longer a playing a role as a Cape, her power still worked just fine. If anything, it seemed to have gotten stronger now than it was previously, and the number of bugs she had to work with was more than she had back on Earth Bet. It was when Hadvar took her up to Helgen for a quick tour of the fort that she discovered something that made her want to squeal in glee and cackle rather maniacally.

Those giant spiders that she had seen? The dog sized ones? Yeah, turns out they were _small_ for that species. The caves below Helgen were home to a dozen frostbite spiders of the dog size variety, three of them bigger than a person, and one massive spider as big as a small house. She convinced Hadvar to let her explore a bit, and managed her way into the caves. Immediately, she began fortifying their nest into something more efficient and defensible. She may not be a Cape anymore, but they were still her bugs, and she'd be damned if she let anything happen to her new favorite spiders. And while costumes for secret identities were also no longer necessary, she couldn't deny her attachment to her old outfit. Frostbite spider silk wasn't as strong individually per strand compared to black widow silk, but it formed thicker strings and was _much_ more plentiful. Their venom was also good for dying things black as well.

Taylor eventually put together a set of armor that was light and maneuverable, yet offered sturdy protection. The basic armor was made from leather reinforced with iron strips, and lined with frostbite silk. With Alvor's help, she made a set of vambraces and rerebraces and a set of greaves and cuisses. Her torso piece was made similarly, but had ribs of steel that Uncle Alvor had put in for her. She made sure to add a gorget, as her scars were a constant reminder that it could come in handy. She made sure to add pocketed pouches and carrying equipment, lots and lots to be exact. She didn't need as much space to hide her bugs anymore, as the environment made it easier to hide and gather them, but she didn't have access to 21st century convenience here, and she would need to carry various supplies with her if she went anywhere. Which she planned to. Taylor liked Riverwood just fine, but she was getting the urge to explore and see what this new world without Endbringers and S-class threats had in store.

Once all her armor was completed she brought the individual pieces to her tentative lair and used the venom from the massive spider to dye the entire thing black. It looked rather good in her opinion.

For weaponry, she had a pair of steel daggers, honed as sharp as Alvor could make them. She also had a scoped hunting bow crafted by Faendal, and a quiver of arrows to go with it.

Things didn't stop there, as it seemed her time running errands for any and everyone had endeared her to the townsfolk. Orgnar and Delphine gave her plenty of potions, and the Valerius siblings stocked her with supplies for her journey, with torches, lantern oil, and food. Camilla even gave her a _Ring of Magica_ that she had bought from a trader. And hadn't that been an eye opener for Taylor.

It turned out that anyone could learn magic in this world if they had the knowledge and training, but most people just didn't have the time to devote to it. With Taylor, it worked a bit weirdly. Using several old tomes that belonged to Lucan, she learned that she had an affinity for frost spells (big surprise), alteration spells, and illusion spells. Out of the dozen or so spells, she only managed any from those three schools of magic. She was no mage, but she was overjoyed to have new abilities she could practice and rely on. The weird bit was how magica interacted with her Cape powers. While her spells didn't affect her insect control directly, she learned that she could apply her oakflesh spell to parts of her swarm if she had the magica to do so. The small bugs took barely any, allowing her to use it on half her swarm at once, while the frostbite spiders took so much that she could only use it on the dog sized ones, and only then three at once. On top of that, the ring that Camilla gave her that boosted her magica reserves also influenced her powers, expanding her range by a small but noticeable amount.

It was halfway through Last Seed by the time she was finally ready to head out. She thanked the townsfolk again for taking care of her during her few months there, and promised to visit if she came by this way again. Now she just had to make a quick trip up to Helgen with Hadvar to retrieve a few of her precious spiders, and she would be on her way. Hopefully she would eventually find a way back home. After her brief study in magic, Taylor was certain that it was some sort of conjuration/summoning spell that brought her here. To that end, she planned to first head to Winterhold and inquire at the Mage's college about the possibility of such things. She would stop at Whiterun to see what it held, and then try and catch a coach for Winterhold. She hoped to avoid getting caught up in the civil war that was going on while she was at it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:  
Tutorial

Taylor had been in high spirits recently, owing to her newfound desire to explore this new world and her new spiders. She hadn't run into any difficulties since finding herself here, and was looking forward rather optimistically. No surprise then that the universe decided to throw her a curveball in the form of the World-Eater.

She had been standing near some residents of Helgen while Hadvar helped in the execution of several Stormcloaks and one unfortunate bystander (which she could see that Hadvar was rather torn about, but orders were orders) when a massive black dragon came roaring down from the sky and started dropping flaming rocks down around their heads.

Taylor's first thought was 'Oh great, _another_ rage dragon.' Her second was that she really couldn't catch a break.

"Uncle Hadvar!" she shouted as she ran over to where he lay and helped him up. He had barely dodged one of those meteors, and was a little woozy.

"Thanks, lass," he said. "Come on, we need to get out of the open." With that, Hadvar led Taylor through a partially collapsed building only to see one of Helgen's residents, Toralf, lying crippled in the middle of the road.

"Haming, you need to get over here. Now!" Hadvar yelled. As the child ran towards them, Taylor saw the dragon land behind the downed man. "Torolf! Gods... Everyone get back!"

The dragon released a torrent of flame just as the rest of them made it around the side of a nearby house. From inside the house behind them, a slim form wearing rags ran up to them. Taylor noticed that her hands were bound and a gag was wrapped around her mouth.

"Still alive, prisoner? Keep close to me if you want to stay that way. Gunnar, take care of the boy. I have to find General Tullius and join their defense." From Taylor's point of view at this point, the large black dragon attacking the fort was only a few steps above Lung, so she wasn't as afraid as she could have been.

"Gods guide you, Hadvar," Gunnar told them as they ran for cover across the street.

"Stay close to the wall!" Hadvar shouted as the dragon came down for another spray of fire breath. "Quickly, follow me!" he shouted as they ran towards another group of soldiers.

As they approached the one Taylor recognized as General Tullius, he saw the trio approaching and shouted to them over the din of chaos. "Hadvar!" the General shouted as the shockwave from another meteor caused Hadvar to stumble and land on his knees near Tullius. The man leaned down, grabbing Hadvar by the forearm and hefting him up and back to his feet. "Into the keep, soldier! We Are Leaving!"

"It's you and us, prisoner. Stay close!" Hadvar told their tagalong as they ran flat out for the largest structure still standing. Before they could reach it, another of the prisoners ran out towards them from between a broken wall. "Ralof!" Hadvar yelled. "You damned traitor. Out of my way!"

Ralof sneered his answer at them. "We're escaping, Hadvar. You're not stopping us this time."

"Fine. I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde."

"You! Come on, into the keep!" Ralof shouted at the yet unnamed woman. She looked over to Taylor and Hadvar as he shouted back to her.

"Quick, I can cut you loose inside the keep!"

With one last look between the two paths, the woman followed Taylor and Hadvar into the keep.

"We made it," Hadvar sighed as the door closed behind them. He then turned to the still bound woman with them. "Come here, let me get those bindings off." He gently cut loose her hands, allowing her to pull the gag from her mouth.

"Thank you," the woman said. "My name's Zariel." Her voice sounded light and silky to Taylor. Getting a chance to observe their tentative ally, she gave the woman a once over. She was tall and slender, not unlike Taylor herself, but significantly more muscular. She had a few small scars from old blade wounds on her arms, and one that split her right eyebrow down the middle and ended on her upper right cheek. Her hair was done up in a loose ponytail and colored a deep red that Taylor was sure would have made Emma green with envy, and her eyes were a deep chocolate brown.

Her inspection over, Taylor turned to Hadvar. "You okay Uncle Hadvar?" she asked looking him over. He had a few minor burns, but nothing serious.

"I'm fine lass. You help our new friend here find some gear while I take care of these burns. There should be some around here."

Taylor nodded and motioned for the woman to follow her to the other side of the room. While Hadvar was bandaging his burns, Taylor helped Zariel pull a set of armor from a chest and get it fitted on. The woman was surprisingly immodest about changing out of her rags in front her, but Taylor couldn't blame her.

"So, what's your name? You said Hadvar was your uncle?" Zariel asked as she finished slipping on a pair of boots. She stood and strapped a nearby sword over her shoulder as Taylor replied.

"I'm Taylor. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but the dragon kind of ruins that. And no, Hadvar isn't my uncle, I just call him that because he's been letting me stay with him for the last couple of months." She got a nod of understanding from the woman, before they both turned back to Hadvar and the door out of the room.

Things got more unpleasant from there. While Taylor had yet to take a life and wasn't forced to here, watching as Hadvar and Zariel cut their way through a handful of Stormcloaks wasn't easy for her. She made use of her bugs to scout the way ahead of them and watch for ambushes. Upon Hadvar's suggestion, they took what supplies they could along the way. A spell tome in a locked cage held her eye, but she didn't know how to pick a lock. The problem was rendered moot when Zariel expertly opened the cage and retrieved the goodies inside. Sadly, the tome was for a lightning spell, which she doubted she could manage, so she handed it to Zariel, who slipped it into her own pack with a grateful nod. She held up a few picks and raised an eyebrow to Taylor, who smiled and nodded at the silent agreement to learn how to pick a lock.

The trio of Hadvar, Taylor, and Zariel left the torturer and his fallen assistant behind as they moved deeper within the bowels of the fort. A few Stormcloaks and a fallen bridge later, and they were nearing the reason Taylor was even here today to begin with. When Hadvar and Zariel caught sight of the dense buildup of web that could only belong to a colony of frostbite spiders, Taylor saw them steel themselves for a hard fight. She could only hope that they would take this well.

"Hold on, Uncle Hadvar, there's something I need to tell you before we go in there."

He seemed rather exasperated at her timing, but resigned to listening as he said, "Go on, lass, what is it?"

"Well, you know those times where I convinced you to let me go explore?" A head nod. "Well, there's something I didn't tell you and everybody else about my magic. It's a bit weird, less magic and more like an ability of mine, but I control bugs. Ants, flies, spiders, everything creepy crawly is under my control. And frostbites are just really big spiders," she finished as she gave him a weak smile before walking into the nest.

"Taylor!" The two adults shouted as they ran in after her, only to stop and stare dumbfounded as Taylor walked past and pet half a dozen man sized frostbite spiders. She walked over to the far wall, which Zariel noted was brown instead of white like the rest, before Zariel realized that the wall was actually another spider that was even larger than the rest.

"How you doing, girl?" Taylor asked the massive spider. "Sorry I couldn't come back last week, Hadvar came down with a cold and gave it to me. Seems silly that a cold doesn't actually have anything to do with being cold, or I'd have been fine." The other two watched as Taylor stroked the resting form of the large spider before moving over to the corner of the room, where they noticed a small campsite set up. While she grabbed a few satchels and a black spider silk cloak from the cot, several dog sized spiders could have been mistaken for actual dogs as they scurried about her legs like playful pets.

She returned to the two and led the way out of the caves through the entrance that the spiders used to go hunting. The small bear's den had been taken over by another cluster of spider eggs. As they passed, a pair of baby frostbite spiders (whose sizes were about that of a cat) crawled up Taylor's legs and up to her shoulders, where they perched under her cloak and atop her pack.

When they finally exited the cave to see the sun once more, Hadvar watched a dozen of the dog sizes shuffle off to the nearby forest. Only when he could no longer see the hairy insects (minus the two on Taylor's shoulders, which he was steadfastly ignoring) did he speak.

"Taylor, did you just talk to and pet a giant frostbite spider?" he asked with a tremor to his voice. Honestly, a dragon he could take. He'd held his calm during the chaos as the black dragon destroyed the fort. His adopted niece having an entire nest of frostbite spiders as pets? Not so much.

"Mhm. They're rather intelligent compared to other insects, which is understandable due to their size. They act a lot like obedient puppies around me," was her response as she stroked the heads of the two perched upon her shoulders.

Zariel suppressed a shudder as she got the animalistic fear inside of her settled down. At least she hadn't had to fight the damn things.

Hadvar was still in shock from everything that had happened, but was still able to start leading them back towards Riverwood. Along the way, they stopped to show Zariel the standing stones. The three of them were equally amazed when the Mage Stone lit up with a flare of blue under Zariel's touch. With a shrug, she rejoined the pair and they followed the river as it flowed downstream.

"Taylor?" Zariel spoke up.

"Yes?"

"What's in those bags you grabbed?" Zariel asked, a feeling of dread settling over her for some unknown reason. She had the nagging suspicion she wouldn't like the answer, but her curiosity was overwhelming her sense of self-preservation telling her not to ask.

"Oh, nothing much, just a few dozen spider eggs. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Zariel said hurriedly. Well, now she knew where that feeling of dread came from...

AN:

The Army's been keeping my busy, so I haven't been able to focus on my other stories enough to hammer out where I want the plot to go. In the meantime, you get this delightful horror that Wormed its way into my brain.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:  
Bleak Falls Barrow

Upon reaching Riverwood, Hadvar and Taylor led Zariel to Alvor's house. The trio came upon the house to find Alvor outside working at his forge. Taylor called out to him with a wave, and he rose to approach them.

"Hadvar, what are you and Taylor doing back so soon?" When Alvor was close enough to make out the burns on Hadvar's armor, he exclaimed, "Shor's bones, what happened to you, boy? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Shh. Uncle, please. Keep your voice down. I'm fine. But we should go inside to talk."

"What's going on? And who's this?" Alvor asked as he turned to look at Zariel.

"She's a friend. Come on, I'll explain everything but we need to go inside."

"Okay, okay. Come inside, then. Sigrid will get you something to eat, and you can tell me all about it."

This led to Alvor ushering the trio inside, where he sat them down at a table before continuing.

"Now then, boy, what's the big mystery? What are you doing here looking like you lost an argument with a cave bear?"

"Taylor and I were at Helgen. I was rejoining General Tullius's guard, and Taylor was going to hitch a ride with us to until we passed Whiterun. Some Stormcloaks had been captured and were being dealt with, when the fort was attacked, by a dragon," Hadvar said.

"A dragon? Are you sure?" Alvor turned to face Taylor and Zariel, both of whom nodded at his incredulous look. "That would explain what I saw flying over the valley earlier…" he trailed off.

"You saw it?" Taylor piped up.

"Yes, a large black shape flew over the valley heading north. If it really was a dragon, then the Jarl will need to know."

Hadvar nodded. "I need to get to Solitude and let them know what's happened," he said.

"And I was planning on heading to Whiterun first, once I left. It wouldn't be going out of my way to inform them of what happened," Taylor said. Turning to Zariel, she asked "What about you? I'm assuming you didn't really have any plans for the near future, due to your previous circumstances…" Taylor trailed off, uncomfortable at bringing up the fact that the woman sitting with them had been about to be executed by the army that Hadvar was a part of.

Zariel just waved it off, seemingly unconcerned. "Don't worry about it, that's simply how events played out, and I certainly won't hold it against you or your uncle." Alvor raised a brow at this, but Hadvar waved him off. "You're right in thinking that I have no plans. I had a habit of roaming about before all this happened, so it's rather likely that I'll accompany you to Whiterun, if that is ok with you?" Taylor gave a smile and nod, after which Zariel continued, "However, I will need to resupply. I am rather lacking in basic necessities at the moment." While it wasn't as bad as only having the clothes on her back, Zariel did have little in the way of supplies. Her pack contained a half dozen lockpicks, a spellbook, a handful of potions, and roughly a hundred septims.

Taylor turned to Alvor and asked, "Uncle Alvor, do you have a spare set of armor and a sword or two? Her current equipment isn't the best." A pair of iron swords and basic Imperial leathers did not an adventurer make.

Alvor nodded, and gestured towards the wall that the forge stood on the other side of. "Take what you need, the Jarl learning what happened is worth a bit of iron and steel." Taylor smiled and stood to wrap her arms around his shoulders, before leading Zariel out and around the building to the forge.

An hour later saw Zariel wearing a set of good quality leather armor that Taylor had helped improve the fit of, with two sharpened steel swords crossing over her back. She also sported a steel dagger at her lower back. Her pack had been filled with food and a change of clothes by Alvor's wife. After being wished good luck and Taylor giving her adopted uncles one last hug each, the duo of Taylor and Zariel stopped at Lucan's shop to add a few more things to Zariel's supplies.

"Well one of us has to do something!" was the first thing the two heard as they entered the shop.

"I said no! No adventures, no theatrics, no thief-chasing!" Lucan said forcefully.

"Well what are you going to do then, huh? Let's hear it!" his sister Camilla said back.

"We are done talking about this!" Lucan then noticed Zariel entering the building. "Oh, a customer. Sorry you had to hear that," he said, before noticing that Taylor was also present. "Taylor! How are you? Aren't you heading off today?"

"Yes, I am, but my new friend here needs some supplies. We came here to get them before we set out. What were you arguing about?" Taylor asked as she started to gather some purchases for Zariel. A lantern with oil, a few torches, and a traveling cloak made their way onto the counter. Zariel didn't have quite enough to cover it all, but Taylor waved it off and covered the difference. Meanwhile, Lucan explained how someone had stolen the ornamental claw he kept in the store.

Zariel seemed to perk up at this, and volunteered to retrieve it for him. Taylor gave Zariel a look, to which she shrugged and mouthed, 'later'. Once the supplies were packed and Zariel assured Lucan that she would return with his Golden Claw, the duo left the shop. On the way out of town, Zariel explained why she had volunteered so quickly.

"Remember what I said about roaming about? Well, this is part of it. There's always somebody somewhere that needs something done, whether it be something trivial like carrying a message or something more significant such as fighting off a swarm of bandits." Taylor raised brow at that last one, to which Zariel gave another shrug. "It's all about new experiences. Traveling to places you wouldn't normally go to do things that other people can't. Sure, you're also helping people, which is all well and good, but I'd be lying if I said the bigger part of me isn't in it for the adventure."

That food for thought kept Taylor occupied as they made their way up the side of the mountain to Bleak Falls Barrow. Taylor was brought out of her musings as her swarm allowed her to sense three figures up ahead near an old tower. The snowy weather would normally be a problem for her bugs, but it seemed that the insects of Skyrim were much hardier than the comparable ones back home. The dartflies and luna moths seemed particularly well adapted to the cold. From what she could tell, the figures seemed to be standing around, not doing much. However, when the one standing by a tree outside the tower spotted them, he immediately nocked an arrow and took aim in their direction. A combination of instinct and the heightened reactions granted by her power caused her to drop to a knee and lean sideways, and her eyes caught the blur of an arrow speeding through where her torso had been. Zariel dove behind a large boulder, and drew one of her swords. Meanwhile, Taylor slid her own bow from its holder on her pack, and drew an arrow from her quiver. As the arrowhead cleared the edge of the quiver, Taylor pressed it against a small cloth on the inside edge. The cloth was connected to a pouch filled with frostbite venom, and allowed the venom to soak through and be applied to the arrows without hassle or spilling.

Without a second's thought, Taylor fitted and loosed the arrow, aiming for the archer's main arm. Something she had learned quite by accident was that her swarm sense, as she found herself calling it, granted her an insane degree of proprioception through her bugs. She could aim with pinpoint, or in this case bug-point, accuracy as long as she had enough skill with a bow to actually hit her target. Constant practice had taught her how to account for wind and other factors enough that she could effectively use her bugs for targeting. As a result, her arrow met the bicep of her target, right where the fly had been sitting momentarily before it moved out of the way.

As the man gave a cry and dropped to his knees, Zariel dashed from her cover and sprinted towards him. Taylor was stunned for a moment by her own reaction, having acted without thought. She felt a little guilty, having just shot a man with a poisoned arrow. Granted, the poison likely wouldn't kill him and he had just shot an arrow at her with what appeared to be intent to kill her. With that thought came the realization that she didn't have anything to be guilty about. This wasn't Brockton Bay anymore, and here everything was very much a life or death struggle. Hunting had helped her realize this little by little, and Taylor was finally coming to accept that she would have to kill eventually, and it was fortuitous that it was against some rather inept bandits and not someone more deadly that she did so. Being still at long range while watching Zariel deliver the finishing blow to the third bandit, having already swiftly dealt with the other two, Taylor was able to deal with her mental crisis in relative safety. By the time she had stowed her bow and trudged up to Zariel, she had mostly settled her storm of emotions and thoughts.

Now that there wasn't the threat of a dragon hanging over them, Zariel took the time strip the corpses of anything useful. "Looting is a valuable skill," she stated rather simply when Taylor asked why she was doing so. Taylor had just reached another one of those 'shrug and go with it moments', similar to when she had arrived in Skyrim. She had just shot a man, made peace with the fact that she would get blood on her hands eventually, and was now learning how to strip a corpse and loot the nearby tower for valuables. Taylor would be unsurprised if she were to know that this was far from the limit of the things she would get up to. But that's all in due time.

Another trio of bandits was guarding the entrance to the ruins, and Zariel was thankful for Taylor's foresight as they approached the structure through the flurries of snow. Taylor's armor was well insulated despite her new resistance to cold temperatures, and she had made sure to do the same to the set she procured for Zariel. She had also set one of her spiders to lining Zariel's cloak with silk while they had been walking, and it was now sturdier than it had been before. Their warm and well fitted outfits allowed them to ignore the wind and snow as they approached the bandits like stalking wolves. Zariel made a gesture to grab Taylor's attention, and then motioned to show that she would take the two at the top of the steps. Taylor nodded, and readied her bow to take the one walking toward them from the lookout walkway.

Taylor readied another arrow, and sighted in on her target. This time, her aim was lethal. The arrow flew true and pierced the eye of her target, embedding itself deep within the skull. While aiming for the throat would have made it possible to recover the arrow, it also would have made a mess and gotten blood everywhere. The trade of one arrow for not staining any potential loot, or herself, with blood was an easy one to make. The quiet thump of a falling body was quickly joined by the sharp hiss of drawn steel. Twice did she hear it, each followed by another muffled thud. Taylor looked to Zariel, and upon finding her unharmed, proceeded to loot the corpse of her first kill, whom she learned was female.

That thought had an oddly minimal effect on Taylor's mind. She would have been worried about becoming an emotionless killer, as she hadn't felt anything more than a mild sense of regret for the waste of life, but something inside of her was telling her that it was alright. Some part of her was saying that they were but ants, not in the way that they were bugs under her command, but rather in such a way as ants were to regular humans, simply ubiquitous things to be stepped on and ignored. Being that they were bandits, Taylor didn't find much to argue with about that description as she finished her looting.

Taylor and Zariel used two packs they had taken from some of the bandits to hold their loot until they had a moment to properly go through it. Each had one of the packs, which were filled with coinpurses, daggers, unenchanted jewelry, and other small miscellaneous items. Of note in Taylor's loot were a pair of high quality wolf pelts and three dozen iron arrows. Zariel had the good fortune to find an enchanted ring on one of the bandits. Normally, Taylor wouldn't know what it did until she had a chance to compare the runes on it to a reference book. Expert mages would be able to tell what an enchantment did just by looking at the runes on an item, which was due to having studied or worked with them enough to have memorized most them. Taylor had barely scratched the surface when it came to magic, but it seemed that Zariel was significantly more knowledgeable. Zariel identified the ring as a Ring of Minor Restoration, which made spells such as healing or magical shields more easily cast. Taylor had no objections to Zariel slipping the ring on as they made their way inside.

The two had decided that Taylor would stick to long range tactics while Zariel attacked from up close. Taylor assured her that she was accurate enough that she wouldn't hit her during the fighting, and Zariel seemed to agree with her ability enough to be unworried about a stray arrow to the back. They had come to the conclusion that anyone else in the ruins were likely to be bandits, as the ruins were avoided by normal people, and anyone specifically delving into the ruins for riches to plunder would likely attack them out of principle to avoid sharing or other related complications.

Upon entering through the massive doors of the main entrance to the ruins, the noise of metal scraping against stone drew the attention of two figures sitting by a fire. They both glanced over and, having not recognized the duo, scrambled to their feet and drew their weapons before charging towards them, rather handily proving their earlier theory. Taylor dropped to a knee, pulled, and loosed her arrow, having had the foresight to have one knocked already. At this distance and with no wind to account for, she didn't need to spend time aiming, and the arrow lodged in the knee of the bandit on the left. The other, a woman, closed with Zariel and swung a war axe at her head. Zariel parried with her left sword, flowing swiftly into a slice at the woman's torso. Her blade bit deeply into the woman's side, and she stumbled back while swinging her axe at Zariel in a desperate motion. Zariel had sheathed her left sword and brought forth a stream of ice and frost at her opponent, whose motions slowed as she was assailed by the blast of cold. This left her open to Taylor's second arrow, which sprouted from the woman's wrist, forcing her to drop her axe. Zariel sidestepped to dodge the thrown dagger from the man on the ground, then redrew her sword and moved to finish him. Taylor slid her bow into its carrier and drew her own dagger as she approached the downed woman. Both bandits were ended with a simple slice to the throat.

Per the new standard procedure, the corpses were looted, as was their companion who seemed to have been bitten to death by skeevers. Past the firepit, Zariel unlocked a chest that held naught but some septims and a health potion. Continuing on, they watched as another bandit was turned into a pincushion but a trapped lever. Both females were rather nonplussed at the bandit's stupidity, as the answer to the trap was _literally_ right in front of him. The bandit and the room netted them a few potions and a handful of septims.

The next room was at the top of a spiraling stair. A table with two burial urns and a book sat in front of them. Taylor was hesitant about taking items from ancient ruins, to which Zariel replied, once again, that "Looting is a valuable skill." Rolling her eyes, Taylor added the book to her pack while Zariel searched the urns for gems. The book looked to be a fictional anecdote about thieves, while containing a basic guide to lockpicking.

As they descended the spiral stairs and dealt with several skeever, Taylor felt them growing closer to the presence that she had felt since entering the temple. It felt large yet weak, and not unlike how one became frail and less healthy upon growing too old. A few turns later, and they reached a frostbite spider nest, hearing a voice shouting for help from his comrades. While there were many spiders down there with them, the only actual frostbite was the giant one that lowered from the ceiling and shuffled over to them. It was a very old frostbite spider, and it was easy to determine that the rest of its brood had long since moved on to more fertile territory. The one before them, being so large, was unable to follow. It was old, and tired, and had recently been mortally wounded. It wouldn't live much longer, even with intervention from Taylor and Zariel.

Taylor felt tears pool at the corners of her eyes as the spider knelt down in front of her. She rested a gentle hand on its forehead, as she drew her dagger with her left. She was as swift as she could be, and it felt but a single sharp sting, before it slumped to the ground and moved no more. Taylor idly wondered what it said of her that she was more broken up about the death of deadly predator that had undoubtedly killed several people, from the evidence around her, than she was after killing a fellow human being. That same voice from before whispered to her; it was nothing of consequence, simply soothing words and gentle humming, but it helped nonetheless.

There was nothing of use to be gained from the nest, as the webs were all old and dried, and the spider had long since stopped producing venom, relying on its rather meagre store of what it had left. Taylor bowed her head as she rested her hand on the head of the spider, and whispered a short prayer, though she knew not why, nor even whom the prayer was to. When she was done, she turned from the spider to see Zariel cutting down the dark elf that had been trapped by the webbing in the doorway. The elf tried to make a break from it, but a thrown dagger to the back dropped him like a puppet without strings. This was obviously one of the bandits, as he was in possession of the claw. Upon reading his journal, Zariel called Taylor over to share what she had found. The two decided to continue their delve into the ruins, in search of the 'secret of Bleak Falls Barrow'.

The next room contained a few septims and a single pink crystal, which Taylor knew to be called a soul gem. It was similar to the thing that the vampire had tried to use on her when she had been brought here, but while the black one he had used was for storing human souls, the pink ones were for souls of 'lesser' creatures. Soul gems varied by size and color, with the smallest and most common types being pink, with the two larger types blue, and the black ones being unique to themselves. Pocketing their finds, the two moved on.

They had entered a burial chamber filled with dried and shriveled corpses, when Taylor suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her bugs had sensed movement from one of the corpses. Make that three of them. Before her eyes, she witnessed what the local Nords called draugr, undead warriors that acted as guardians of ancient tombs. Zariel sheathed one of her swords and let loose a stream of flames at the charging draugr while Taylor loosed an arrow into the chest of the closest one. It seemed to have little effect other than staggering it from the force, as it immediately resumed its charge. Taylor backed up a step and holstered her bow, while drawing her daggers and ordering her two spiders to tie up the hands of the rear draugr. The one with the arrow sprouting from its chest reached her and she ducked its swing, swiping at its thighs as she slipped around it. It seemed that even undead warriors needed tendons, as the one in front of her fell to its knees as its hamstring was severed. Following standard zombie disposal protocols, Taylor swiftly plunged her dagger into the back of its head. It seemed to do the trick, as whatever magic was sustaining its reanimation cut off, the light in its eyes fading form glowing blue to dull black.

Meanwhile, Zariel had expertly disarmed and beheaded her opponent, and proceeded to execute the bound draugr in front her. They moved on as Taylor's spiders returned to their earlier perches. After avoiding a spiked wall trap and killing three more draugr, Taylor cheated a bit in dealing with a set of swinging axes. She had her spiders crawl under the blades and use cords of spider silk pull the chain and deactivate the trap.

Yet another draugr popped out of the woodwork, and this one managed to get the drop on them as they rounded the next corner, driving its blade into Zariel's thigh in a space between her armor. She backhanded it in the face, staggering it and causing the blade to be ripped from her leg. Zariel sank to one knee, and her hand glowed with a gentle golden light as she held it over her wound, her other raising her sword to guard herself. She needn't have bothered, as the draugr was tied and executed before her wound had halfway closed.

Taylor had been worried at first, having seen the severity of the wound, but then calmed considerably when she learned that healing magic was so powerful. Taylor vowed to study it at her nearest opportunity.

Zariel used efficiency to deal with the next three draugr, lighting the firepot and oil to burn them to cinders before they could take more than a couple steps. The room gave way to the start of a cave, and the coffin across the room fell open to reveal yet another draugr. Taylor found herself starting to become sick of them. It was dealt with swiftly. The tunnel led through a cave filled with glowing mushrooms, of which Taylor took several for her alchemy ingredients, and led past a waterfall, natural bridge, and _another_ draugr. The chests at the bottom of the waterfall held a paltry sum of septims. The next room, another draugr, and a large door to the next room. More draugr awaited them after another swinging-blades trap. More draugr, more fire, and some superficial injuries and a little healing later, our duo stood in front of a large door with rotating panels. Once again, Taylor didn't need to be Tattletale to deal with the problem in front of her, and the claw yielded the answers to their way forward. At the far end of a large cavern, a large wall covered with inscriptions sat near another coffin. Upon approach, one of the words of the wall began to glow, and smoky images of it flew off the wall and into Zariel. She felt no different afterwards, and offered Taylor another of her many expressive shrugs. The sound of a coffin lid being thrown from its resting place had the two spinning around.

Another draugr rose before them with a massive sword that glowed with an eerie chill. The draugr inhaled, and then spoke in some language that they couldn't understand, causing a visible wave of force to surge their way. They dove to opposing sides of the wave of blue energy, with Taylor loosing an arrow into the draugr's hand. While the poison didn't affect it and it didn't feel pain, it still couldn't hold its greatsword with an arrow through its palm. Zariel rushed it as its sword clattered to the ground, and a trio of slashes ended with a fourth separating its head and its shoulders. Much looting ensued, with a decent sum of gold and gems, and enchanted necklace, the draugr's sword, and a large stone tablet being of note. Taylor was skeptical of bringing the stone with them, but Zariel claimed her Loot Sense™ was tingling, and Taylor was left rolling her eyes.

The doors at the back of the cavern led them back to the surface, and deposited them on the shores of Lake Ilinalta. Taylor recognized the trio of standing stones in the distance, and led the way downstream towards Riverwood.


End file.
